In modern society, we are often told that knowledge is power. If this is true, it makes sense, as the individuals who appear to hold all the power are often the smartest ones. This statement, however, was never as true as it was during the time of slavery in the United States of America. During these times, slaveholders kept their slaves ‘content’ with their state of slavery simply by keeping them ignorant. In Frederick Douglass’ autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he frequently sees the idea of knowledge the main source of the slaveholder’s power over their slaves. It is because of this power-over relationship that the slaves seem to be unable to break free of this cycle. At the time of the novel’s writing, it was not …show more content…
Douglass notes that he has “no accurate knowledge of [his] age” (Douglass, 15), noting that “by far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (Douglass, 15). He notes that the masters wish to keep the slaves’ birthdays a secret for almost no reason other than the fact that they can. It is through this that the slaves begin to develop full dependency on their masters. He moves forward, noting that slaves are often kept in the dark about things such as their paternity, as the slaveholders did not find it important enough to divulge to the slaves, as though they did not want to know their paternity – as though it did not matter. Because these basic facts are robbed from the slaves at childbirth, it comes to no surprise to the reader that by taking away these basic facts from the slaves, their masters are effectively robbing their slaves of any form of individual identity through their family or birth date – these things only matter to real people, and the slaveowners make it clear that they do not see their slaves as …show more content…
Not surprisingly, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass tells a story of empowerment and hope. Douglass notes that it was his education that allowed him to have freedom. By educating himself, he was allowed to break free of the power over relationships of his masters and was able to genuinely make a change in his own life. It is because of this that the two main themes of this novel are ignorance and knowledge. More than anything, Douglass argues, the education of an individual, especially a slave, is the most liberating experience one could have. He argues that it’s knowledge that helps the slaves to begin to articulate the horrors of slavery and the injustices that they had experienced. Through this, it is argued that the only thing that kept slavery alive was the ignorant state that the masters kept their slaves
He believed that the ability to read makes a slave “unmanageable” and “discontented” (2054). Douglass discovered that the “white man’s power to enslave the black man” (2054) was in his literacy and education. As long as the slaves are ignorant, they will be resigned to their fate. However, if the slaves are educated, they would understand that they are as fully human as the white men and realize the unfairness of their treatment. Education is like a forbidden fruit to the slave; therefore, the slave owners guard against this knowledge of good and evil.
Throughout the first half of the book I continuously noticed that the slaveholders were power hungry. Now this may be a very obvious observation, but it has major psychological implications about how the slaveholders may have thought. In the book it seems as though the slaveholders attempted optimize their superiority over their slaves. They wanted the slaves to be able function well enough for them to be able to work, but not as well as white people. This is evident when Douglas’s Baltimore master stated on page 29 that learning to read and write would ruin slave. The Baltimore master essentially saying that a slave who did learn to read and write would become less of a beast. Douglas states on page 33 that after he learned to read he wished he could return to the simplicity of his former life and even states he wished he could be a beast again.
One theme found in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is that ignorance can lead to a depth of curiosity. In his autobiography, Douglass has an eagerness of wanting to know more information from anything that surrounds, and that his “…want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness…”. Douglass want for knowledge is obstruct by his master’s deprivation of information to his slaves. When in Baltimore, Mrs. Auld was teaching Frederick the ABCs and teaching him how to write. Once Master Auld found out about this he was enraged and told Mrs. Auld that “learning would spoil the best nigger in the world”. Once Douglass heard this he understood what knowledge can do. Douglass’s ignorance lead to curiosity from which lead to knowledge. In the news article “The Case for Teaching Ignorance”, Marlys H. Witte, a college professor, suggested teaching a class called “Introduction to Medical and Other Ignorance”. Marlys wanted her students to “…recognize the limits of knowledge and to appreciate that questions often deserve as much attention to answers”. Many people didn’t agree with Marlys H. Witte, but many scientist and sociologist have agreed with her. Sociologist, Linsey McGoey, has said “…students
Douglass knew that ignorance or lack of knowledge was the real slave and knowledge was the path to freedom, to a new life. Douglass believed that all people are created equal, but we weren’t just born free, we have to make ourselves into who we are and what we want to be. The worst thing about slavery is it prevents people from improving themselves through education. Douglass worked by making himself free not physically but also mentally free by expanding his horizons through various different forms of education. By furthering his education and improving himself to be the best person he could be, Douglass was free in a way, free to the fact that he wasn’t going to be the person the slaveholders wanted him to be, he was determined and willing to find his own freedom by any means. This autobiography proves that knowledge or education is the ultimate path to freedom, either mentally or physically. A person can push themselves to the limit of starvation, loneliness, and physical pain by winning their mental freedom, knowing that with a little bit of determination and education it can truly transform a person’s life and Douglass not only shows this throughout his autobiography but lived through it and proved
Frederick Douglass had moved into a new mistresses home who had never known of slavery. While she had initially taught him to read, fed him well, and looked upon him like an equal human being, she eventually forbade him from reading and whipped him at her husband’s request. The kind woman he had known became inhumane and degrading because that was required to maintain the unwarranted power over slaves.
Knowledge and literacy posed great threats to the institution of slavery. The motivation to deprive chattel of the ability to read, write, and think independently was cunning and selfish, but the policy was extremely effective. Namely, illiterate slaves were more tractable and less likely to attempt an escape, being wholly unable to read “dangerous” abolitionist propaganda. Equally important, keeping blacks ignorant preserved another level of distinction between slaves and slaveholders. It is much easier to rationalize enslavement when the people being subjugated are perceived to be very different from their masters. Bearing this in mind, one can imagine how hazardous a chronicle of slavery penned by a slave himself must have been for slaveholders,
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass exhibits an understanding into the force irregularity between a slave and a slaveholder. In this record, Douglass demonstrates that servitude demolishes the slave as well as the proprietor. The "toxic substance of flighty force" that the experts hold has an unfavorable and dehumanizing impact on their ethics and convictions (Douglass 39). This massive control in the hands of one breaks the kindest heart and finest sentiments transforming them into those of an evil spirit. Douglass utilizes flashback , profound portrayal, and speaks to the feelings to address the negative impacts of subjection.
In, “The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, readers get a first person perspective on slavery in the South before the Civil War. The author, Frederick Douglass, taught himself how to read and write, and was able to share his story to show the evils of slavery, not only in regard to the slaves, but with regard to masters, as well. Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, he shares his disgust with how slavery would corrupt people and change their whole entire persona. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to help establish his credibility, and enlighten his readers about what changes needed to be made.
However, Douglass over hears a comment from his master that places his birth at around 1818. Douglass also highlights ignorance as a way that whites used as a tool of slavery. He shows how white slave owners maintained slavery through ignorance. Ignorance ensured that even slaves themselves thought that slavery was indeed a natural occurrence, when actually it was a manmade condition. By perpetuating ignorance, many people thought that slaves were naturally incapable of taking part in civil society. Slaves were kept believing that they were workers for the whites. Douglass narrates how whites used strategies and procedures that dominated blacks throughout their lives. Like Douglass, many slaves ignorance towards basic facts of life was a tool used to dehumanize them. For these reasons, they did not know date of birth or paternity. Forced ignorance perpetuated a lack of natural sense of personal identity. White ensured that slaves could not access basic education in which they would know how to read and write. Reading and writing would empower blacks towards self-sufficiency. According Douglass, literacy would give blacks the power to question whites on why they keep slaves. Additionally, ignorance and illiteracy was a better tool to ensure that the story of
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
Frederick Douglass begins his memoir by describing his lack of knowledge about his own age, and equates his lack of knowledge with an animal. He claims that “Slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs.” It is such a revolting injustice that the slaves were not allowed to know the history of their personal lives, or lives of their families. The slaves were only allowed to know a cold world of work, crops, and brutality. Douglass was not allowed to know the identity of his father either. It is possible that his master was Douglass’s father but this was never clarified. It sickens me to think that slaves had to grow up alone in the world. Most did not know their mother or father and many worked their whole lives until they died. I cannot imagine what a life with no love, kindness, or family would be like, and yet so many African American children had to grow up with that life-style. Douglas “never saw his mother, more than four or five times” in his life because he was separated from her as an infant. He had no bond with his parents. I was also not aware that the slave owners often raped their slaves and expected their slaves to not protest or tell anyone. I was ignorant of the inhumane way in which the slave owners took the slave’s children away from their mothers at such young ages.
Throughout the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave many themes are developed relating to slavery. Such themes that are well developed include corruption, brutality, and knowledge. Perhaps the most important theme that was developed was knowledge and its power in everything. Frederick Douglass gained knowledge throughout his life, defying the laws surrounding slavery. Perhaps one of the most impressive things from the life of Frederick Douglass was the fact that, except for a few months at the beginning of his engagement with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, he was a self taught man who took it upon himself to expand his knowledge. Frederick Douglass discovered the power of knowledge and applied this to his life in many different stages. First, he discovered that knowledge is power. Second, he went out of his way to obtain all the knowledge he could. Third, he used that knowledge, that he had gained over years and years of self-taught, underground learning, and used it to run away from the brutal life of a slave. Finally, he used the knowledge he had gained to publicly speak against the institution of slavery and make it a point to earn the right of universal suffrage for all men. He presented many ideas, which we today, can see were very strong and moral convictions from his views as an abolitionist.
By Frederick Douglass simply learning the basic fundamentals of reading and writing, he imposed a threat to his superiors. His narrative is a direct product of his enslavement; his powerful narrative brought light to a situation. Douglass is exactly what slave-owners feared. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery; as a result of Frederick’s continued resistance against his unfortunate “birthright”, he continued on to be an educated adult, a famous abolitionist, and inspirational orator.
Education was one of the main themes in Narrative of the Life of Frederic Douglass. He felt it was very important to learn how to read, write and have a solid educational background. In addition, Frederick Douglass shared his personal story about slavery and the way a man could rise above it and make something of himself. Douglass showed readers how he made himself free; and freedom is not something that is given, but something that one can find for themselves. Throughout the narrative, Douglass described the cruelty of slavery and the horrible living conditions slaves had to endure. He highlighted how he learned the importance of educating himself and his claim of being a man, a human being with rights, no matter what the issue was. Douglass defined freedom as more than escape from slaveholders. There are many ways a person can be enslaved as well as all the ways people can be free. Despite the many ways to prevent little or no education, for slaves in the south, education was a major role in the abolition of slavery and someone like Frederick Douglass used the education that he taught himself, to teach others and come out from a slave to a free man.
The narrative begins by informing the readers that slaves were kept in the dark about crucial issues in their lives such as their dates of births. The slaves, particularly those born in slavery, were not allowed to know such important aspects of their lives as birthdays. For instance, Douglass was not sure of his exact birth date. They were even kept in the dark on the identity of their parents, “I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day” (Douglass, 10). This implies that the slaves were separated from their biological parents at a tender age, and subjected to harsh living conditions. One of the slaves, Fredrick Douglass, was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was seven years old. The slaves are not emotionally affected by the separation since they are separated from their parents at a tender age and they become used to living without their parents. Slaves are subjected to harsh co...